Morar! Simple as that... my all time favourite place! Actually to be more precise, the White Sands on the opposite side of the water to the village itself! I spent many summer holidays there as a kid playing on the beach, scrambling over the rocks, climbing the hills and sometimes walking up to Loch Morar (and one time rowing over then climbing up to the shop in Morar for rolls or something!)

Its my place to go to just wander around... the beaches in the area can be preactically deserted even in the height of summer! One of these days I will get back there and capture a sunset (the low lying clouds were against me in 2003 and racing the Jacobite was too tempting in 2005!

ok ok I know what you're all thinking now - there are NO distilleries in Morar! Think about it people... that would just spoil the area (and there's one in Fort William just before you turn onto the Road to the Isles )

Morar is on our list of places to visit....

As you may all gather, our list of places to visit is VERY long

Was thinking that

The problem we find is, when we visit somewhere chances are it stays on the list of places to visit... makes more sense than having two lists (one of places to visit and the other for places to re-visit!)

Morar is definitely high in my list of places to go back to... not only for the sunset, but thats one of the reasons! You see, many years ago I stood on the beach with my older brother watching the most amazing sunset ever. Neither one of us had a camera with us... and neither one was prepared to go get a camera (and this was long before mobile phones were invented!) Ever since, getting that sunset has been a goal of mine... as I said, the closest I came was 2003:

Morar is wonderful
The white sands , the deep, deep loch. The Jacobite negotiating the level crossing. It's our favourite place in Scotland, or maybe I can extend that to the whole area between Arisaig and Mallaig. We first stayed there in '83 and for the next 20 years never went back again, although we often thought about the place. However, since the summer of 2004 we have been back again and again. The weather is usually kind. The views of the islands of Rhum, & Eigg enchant us and draw us with their siren call. I defy anyone not to be moved by the small isles sunset on a fine evening. Sky on fire and aglow with a reddening backdrop as the sun sinks away to the west behind the black Cuillin of Skye.

Have a lunch at the Cnocc-na-Ffaire at the Back of Keppoch - surely the best view from a pub garden anywhere in the world! Yes, I'm severely smitten.

Smashing. You could do worse than this place for a place to rest yer heed.
http://www.tighnalocha.co.uk

That was a bonus for myself and Linda a couple of years ago when we decided to race the train back to Fort William. We planned to get our first photos of it as it approached Morar then as it went through the crossing. Having one camera we decided that I would get the first set of photos, hand the camera over and Linda; she would get the next set as I got the car ready. It was as we were working out how and where we'd do the handover that we noticed the crossing was operated by the driver of the train... totally negating all our well thought out plans - and making the next part so much easier!

Needless to say we won the race, although by the time we reached Glenfinnan it was more like a convoy... on 3 now (1 - 2 - 3 - indicate left! )

I actually took the time to climb up high above the viaduct and was rewarded with absolutely stunning views of Loch Shiel. A truly awesome sight. This was a bright summers day and the water was so blue. The monument looked tiny from where I was and as the train traversed the viaduct and let out a few whistles my video joy was complete! My wife had stayed in the car, sadly. She found out later what she'd missed!
My feet were muddied and my auld legs a bit knack'd by the time I got back to the car but it was well worth the effort.

A little effort can make all the difference! Having said that, while I have climbed to a better vantage point for the viaduct I have so far remained lower than it (my excuse for now will be that I didn't have enough time to get higher!)

Have you climbed the monument as well? Its a lot narrower getting out to the top than I remember

You sound like an artist, Alan. Grand description of a wonderful area. I rarely miss stopping off in Arisaig.



Or dinner, beside the view, their food is noteworthy.

Agreed, Morar certainly has to be up there with the best. It was with good reason that they picked this area for the magnificent coastal scenes in "Local Hero".

I guess the only thought I'd add, and it might be positive or negative, depending on your point of view, is that the area is now much less remote than it used to be.

In the late 70s, riding a large motorbike from Mallaig to Fort William was a white-knuckle experience that took its toll on the brakes, too: tortuous single track roads the whole way and not a white line to be seen anywhere.

The steady upgrading of "The Road to the Isles" since then has dramatically cut journey times between the two, and the last stretch of road they opened, in a straight line across country between the south edge of Arisaig and Morar actually cut several miles off the journey distance for that stretch as well as many minutes off the journey time. This leaves only one remaining stretch of single track road, between Loch nan Uamh (near the Prince's Cairn) to the south edge of Arisaig, and it seems that plans are in hand to replace this with somthing much more direct over the next year or two.

As I said, you can look at this positively or negatively, but the one really great effect is that the old single track coastal road from Arisaig to Morar, with remains in use, is now travelled only by local residents or by visitors there to enjoy the scenery. You are no longer likely to round a corner and find yourself nose to nose with an articulated lorry carrying fish from Mallaig to markets in the south!

As improved as the Road to the Isles is I've still found the area in general to be quiet in the middle of summer. When I took the photo already posted here (in July 2003) there was only myself and a couple walking their dog on the beach. The next day I followed the coast (not the road) to Arisaig and had the same stretch of beach more or less to myself again!

hiya...we never did get our bike on the old coast road up to Mallaig but we've been up to Ullapool and Skye. Getting back to the Mallaig area though the old bits of road are still open - just even quieter. When the lastest stretch is opened in a year or two Mallaig will only be about forty minutes - maybe less from Fort William which may change the nature opf the area a bit. However, the locals deserve faster, not to mention 'safer' links and as tourists we can't really expect the area and its treasures to be preserved in aspic.

We've just booked an apartment on the edge of Mallaig for September next and can hardly wait to go back again. One day we would like to live there if at all possible, if not then some other corner of our favourite land.

Sadly I'm no artist Liz, and my attempts at drawing or painting raise chuckes from my four year old grandaughter ! I did manage to make a good job of painting a fence back in 2004...which reminds me it might need doing again soon.

I do like to try blending words though to create pictures in the head, and find no more inpiration anywhere than north of the only border which matters to me.

I'll be interested to see how they manage this as, at present, the road passes under a couple of arches of the railway bridges that are only wide enough for a single lane. I guess the most obvious approach would be to add a new lane passing under an adjacant arch!

Speaking of these railway bridges... I believe that one (the Loch nan Uamh viaduct itself!) includes the remains of a horse and cart that fell into one of the pillars during construction!

of Tongue that is!
Last year at the very height of summer we were rash enough to motor right up to the very top of Britain for only the second time in us lives like.

Rewarded with a spiffing week of peace, scenic splendour, and few evenings in watching night fall over the Rabbit Isles with a glass of something red.

The Kyle of Tongue was captivating and we shall be back before very much longer I'm sure. The stunning Sutherland landscape forever etched in our memory. Harsh and unforgiving yet at its most benign in early July when the days seem almost everlasting. Sadly, the weeks do not.

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/drifteral99/kyle.html